It's finally here! some kind of beginning to the story behind my short fic "Holding On" I'm sorry it took me so long to get this to the people that have read it. I just went brain dead for awhile... but now that I have "Poker and Peaches" to work on too I'll probably hurry and finish this one.

"Nick! watch out!"

The con man turned around just in time to see the jet fly past, the bomb fall from the sky, getting dangerously closer and closer.

"Nick sweetie move!"

The screams of his friend's reached his ears but he was frozen eyes trained on the falling object. Something telling him that it was too close that he was in a dangerous spot and needed to move. He shut his eyes as the impacted happened and the metal exploded not two feet away from him, the ground vibrated and Nick waited to feel the sharpnel dig into his body. He had come so far, changed so much just to have God finally laugh and kill him here, where there was a safehouse around the corner and the bridge that lead them to safety beyond that.

But Nick was never touched the metal flew past him some even got stuck in the ground in front of his feet yet he didn't even get so much as a thread out of place. He opened his eyes and almost wondered how such a miracle could have happened, but then the smell of oil filled his nose. A sad smile found it's way onto Nick's face and his eyes scanned the area almost hoping he'd see something this time. But nothing had changed there was no shimmer of light, no figure in the distance, not even a movement in the corner of his eye. Nick's shoulders slumped and the smell of oil started to fade making Nick's eyes water his hand slowly raise up like he thought about reaching out.

"Ellis..."

It wasn't like Nick to cry, he'd only done so a handful of times in his life. But he missed that stupid boy so much and his broken heart hadn't had time to heal. The tears didn't always fall but they always showed up. It was like they were called by the reminder of the one thing in the world he'd ever cared about more then himself. Ellis had been killed Nick did the job himself, it was the only true act of love he could show the boy, and now he regretted spending the trip being a total ass when there could have been so much more.

"Nick! NICK! what's wrong? you get hit in the head or something?."

Dropping his hand back down to his side Nick blinked brought out of his thoughts to see Rochelle and Coach standing infront of him. They both had worried looks on their faces, eyes travelling over him to see if there was a visable injury. He wasn't sure if he had cried or not, but he didn't feel any wet trails on his cheeks so he quessed not, but he still felt his lips twisted upwards that sad little smile still on his face.

"No.. I'm arlight."

"Didn't even touch you did it? Damn Nick you got some kind of luck"

Coach whistled and the three of them walked away. The con man being the only one to look back at the crater and sharpnel graveyard, the smile being replaced by his trademark smirk. Coach was wrong, it wasn't luck that had kept him safe.. it was Ellis.

His own little guardian hick.